A milestone this week for Boxer, which opened its 450th store last week in Inanda Crossing, KZN, amid the green hills where it all began. “Inanda is an ever-growing hub, and the many thousands of residents deserve a supermarket that offers great pricing, wonderful promotions and world-class service,” says Boxer Managing Executive Marek Masojada. Boxer was founded 46 years ago in Empangeni and acquired by Pick n Pay in 2002, and now boasts five DCs, a meat factory and stores in every province in South Africa, and eSwatini. Boxer trades in three formats – Boxer Superstores, Boxer Liquors, and Boxer Build – and has long been considered the low-key jewel in the Pick n Pay crown, growing sales +15.4% for the 20 weeks through July 16 compared with +4.8% for the Group as a whole.

Comment: Superb marketing, a relevant price and product offering, a growing basket of added services, and a deep connection to the communities it serves: just great retailing.

During the month of June, Makro managed to deliver 80% of all online orders within two days, while 92% of pickup orders were available for next day collection. This they attribute to their centralised e-commerce pickup & delivery capability with around 60 specialists across functions including e-commerce operations, customer operations and inventory optimisation. This team is supported by a dedicated group of product management and tech experts focused on enabling and accelerating its efforts. To Game now, which has just launched Season 2 of ‘The Game Game’ on the Roblox platform, where young players can experience all the joys of South African urban life, playing within a city block that reflects South African life and culture – including hadedas, potholes, and naturally, a Game store.

Comment: A smart move into the metaverse for a retailer whose sometimes rocky path has always been characterised by bold innovation.

BWG Foods, licensee of the SPAR brand in Ireland, and 80% owned by SPAR South Africa, has partnered with Coca-Cola to electrify its delivery fleet, using Coke’s fully electric heavy goods vehicles (e-HGVs) for selected deliveries to its distribution centre in Dublin. From there SPAR uses its own electric fleet for final delivery to SPAR, EuroSPAR and SPAR Express stores across the country, for the reduction of carbon emissions by 229 tons annually. In the US, fresh off the success of its mid-year Prime Day campaign, Amazon is upping the promotional ante with the announcement of another Prime Day series in October, which would take the wind out of the Thanksgiving Black Friday sales that have traditionally favoured rivals like Walmart. Finally, Alibaba’s Sustainability Trends Report 2023 has found that an overwhelming majority of consumers (73%) want to live more sustainable lifestyles, with inconvenience and high costs cited as the main stumbling blocks.

Comment: And one day, perhaps, retailers and brands will learn that it is to their competitive advantage to give the people what they want.

A new route-to-market (RTM) strategy from the Striped One, involving the funnelling of products from factories to large and mid-size wholesalers, with almost 200 Tiger Brands representatives stationed at wholesale points around the country to pitch the Group’s product superiority to spaza shop owners and shoppers in the hope of growing sales. “With the local informal market remaining largely untapped and statistics showing that it is growing at a faster rate than the modern trade, we see exponential room for growth in this segment and are engaging closely to support our traders and better present our brands to consumers at the point-of-purchase,” says Chief Customer Officer Luigi Ferrini. The business is also looking at solutions that will allow informal traders to repackage bulk products to better meet shopper budgets.

Comment: Excellent work Tiger – acknowledging the growing spend of the informal market, the power of the wholesalers to reach that market, and the importance of the human connection in any retail space.

In the US, a judge has ruled Johnson & Johnson (J&J) cannot use the bankruptcy case of LTL Management, a unit the business created to avoid damages claims resulting from the use of carcinogenic talc in its products, to press tens of thousands of cancer victims to drop their individual lawsuits and accept an $8.9bn settlement. Next, Coca-Cola and seven leading bottling partners from around the world have announced the launch of a sustainability-focused venture capital fund of $137.7m aimed at reducing the business’ carbon footprint in the areas of packaging, heating and cooling, facility decarbonisation, distribution, and supply chain. Finally, big up to NCT Vryheid Road to Rail Logistics for winning the “Judges’ Choice” nod in the second annual Africa Supply Chain Excellence Awards. The project, through lengthy negotiations with Transnet, successfully opened the NCT Road-to-Rail transhipping and procurement depot facility within the Vryheid East marshalling yard, saving suppliers in the catchment area up to R70 per ton and removing 2,350 trips per annum between Vryheid and Richards Bay.

Comment: We need to get trucks off the roads and their emissions out of the atmosphere. Initiatives like this will help us get there.

Increasingly panic-stricken business leaders have warned our apparently unflappable president that the official unemployment rate could rise to 38.1% by 2030 (vs our current 32.9%) unless action is taken to address the country’s energy, logistics and crime crises. Business leaders are now working with the government to deal with the energy crisis and our crumbling rail and port infrastructure. Get this right, and we could be looking at 5% growth and unemployment of a still-worrying (but better) 28% by 2030.

Comment: A Marshall Plan, a Manhattan Project, a Moonshot, a freaking Bosberaad, whatever it takes at this point.